


The Sin Eater

by WesternScribe



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Character Death, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Madness, Regret, a bit of angst, a bit of comfort, sororicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:47:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28775568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WesternScribe/pseuds/WesternScribe
Summary: What is more two than twins? Jaime is no longer certain. In fact, he's not certain of anything anymore. Or, in which the world spirals after the Kingslayer slays a queen.
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	The Sin Eater

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting in my computer for only the Gods know how long.

He killed her. He did it. His twin.

He killed her. He did it-

But she is not dead. Not in the slightest.

Too white walls. Too white book. Deeds too dark to scribe. Jamie's gaze drifts to the looking glass before him. Moonlight spills silver into the room. The torch light hanging from the sconce flickers gold.

His eyes catch all of him that is her. Her nose. Straight and true. Eyes too much like hers. Lips too much like hers. His skull shaped differently with adolescence, but were he a woman, he would be her. The hollows of his cheek were hers in male form; the line of his jaw; the strength of his chin.

**_Thump! Crack!_ Redness pooling...**

He doesn't remember who shaved his face clean. Jamie doesn't remember much since she died. _Since he killed her_. With hands not like hers. Rough, calloused hands. _Hand_. The hands of their divergence. The hands of their discord.

Things were simpler when they were two of the same. When she would play knight and he endured lessons of how to be a proper high-born lady.

Though his hands are clean, all he can see is her blood upon the fingers. Phantom blood. He killed her. Jamie can feel the curve of her neck pressed against his palm. He can feel the warmth of her cheek pushed against his own. The waves of her hair tickle his nose. The deep gashes from her claws ribbon down his back. Those have been patched up too. He doesn't remember seeing a maester...

**Eyes glossed and hazed. Wide, vacant, disbelief. He's sure he looks the same way.**

There is a knock at his door. He makes no move to answer it and after a while, Jamie hears the steps of too short strides descend the hall.

He has her blood; on his hands; in his hands. His heart pumps her blood through his body. Blood on his hands.

**Her blood.**

_His twin._

He is no longer two. For what is more two than twins?

And he is without a twin.

**His twin.**

There is another knock at the door. Jamie knows this inquirer just as he knew the last. He doesn't go to open the door for her either. He is a twin without a twin. She says something. She knocks again.

"I'm here," her voice wavers, "if you need." Then more firmly, "Don't shut me out."

He discovered she is a sentimental thing, after he'd taken her. Curious for a warrior woman to be...

She doesn't leave. He knows she will not. She is like his twin in a way. She is the best part of this thing he has called a soul. _If you buy into that_. She is true. She is kind. She is honorable. She is what he once saw himself to be. This girl who is liken his twin. This girl who has set to restore what he's lost in himself. _This girl-_

"Jamie." His name comes softly through the thick wood of the door. "Please..." Her plea is softer.

_You can go, dear brother._

He knew he would hear her sooner rather than later. Her voice is red, red wine on his burning mind.

**Golden waves teem with blood. Crimson. Gold. His fingers, three of them, touch the slow spreading pool.**

_You can go to her_ , her siren song echoes in his ears, _and kill her as well_. She laughs maliciously. _With that hideous stump, you may repulse her just long enough to do it._

 _No_ , he thinks.

 _You will. I've seen it. She will die by your hand. You will slay that beast, and then they'll slay you._ More laughter. _You'll join me soon, brother._

He doesn't doubt it.

 _And so will she. Her days are numbered_.

**He can't comprehend what he did. _I'm sorry_ , he thinks as he stares at her, unblinking. **

Jaime knows she won't. If he believed in the Gods he doesn't believe in; if there were truth in the words of so- called sacred texts; if praying to statues worked miracles; Jamie knows she will not be with him after. He will be with his natural born twin, tugging the heel of her foot as he follows her through each of the seven hells. He knows this.

But her-

She knocks again, shuffles her weight to another foot.

"Jamie."

He knows she is heaven bound. Away from him she will fly. And he will sink. Down, down, _downward-_

Jamie will sink down to the worst part of this thing he has called a soul. _If you buy into that_. He will sink to her. To her cynicism. To her cruelty. To her faithlessness. She is what he once was, or mayhaps, still is.

 _Yes_ , she says. _I was with others, sweet Jamie._

_... fucking Lancel and Osmund Kettleblack and Moon Boy for all I know..._

_But your infidelity lies just beyond that door..._

Her voice is sharp, sharp like Valyrian steel.

She knocks again.

"Jaime... Jaime... Jamie..."

A lover's mantra.

_Sweet sister, shall I never be free of you?_

Jaime knows he never wanted to be. His desires quite frequently remained unfulfilled, for all his gold got him. By every right, he should be dead; should have dropped to the ground when she did, **_Crack! Thump!_** but he hadn't. A curious thing indeed. What was always meant to be didn't come to pass. _Sweet sister..._

_Dear brother..._

**He feels a hand upon his shoulder. She hoists him up and whisks him away from his crime. From his sin. From unblinking eyes and a face that would be his. _This girl. The sin eater._**

Her eyes glisten when he opens the door. Gems pooled. Sapphires oceaned. He stares at her for long moments. Jamie can see the fear in her eyes as plain as he can see the mauve scarring along the side of her face.

She makes to speak once, twice, thrice, but closes her mouth after each try. A tear spills onto her cheek and he catches it in a caress before it can reach her chin. Jamie smiles weakly. It doesn't reach his eyes. He knows this.

He grasps her hand and interlaces their fingers.

"I was afraid," she begins, but her words die once he presses the back of her palm to his lips.

"It's quite alright." Her eyes are intense. They plead. It's almost palpable, the sincerity in them. This need for her to know him whole. Whole enough to continue. _This girl-_

"Come, my lady." Jamie pulls her into his room and wraps his arms around her as the door closes. She buries her face in his neck as he rubs wide circles upon her back, as he kisses the side of her mouth, as he comforts her in his grief.

**Author's Note:**

> The idea's nothing new. I wonder how that curse will play out.


End file.
